Short Circuit on Phantom battery connectors (Drone side).

[guidokaleka]

My Phantom is not working and when I plug the battery it goes off. What I notice with a multimeter is that if I measure the battery terminals on the drone there is continuity between V+ and GND that is something odd.

I don't know if someone had the same problem before or if someone can do me the favor to measure so I can compare the result. It's suppose that I must have no continuity or at list I should have a very high ohm value.

Regard,
Guido.

 

[PhantomFanatic]

Re: Short Circuit on Phantom battery connectors (Drone side)

Hi and Welcome to the Forum!

I just measured mine and with positive to positive and negative to negative, my meter doesn't read anything or infinity.
With the meter leads reversed, I get the same reading.

What does your meter read in ohms?

 

[guidokaleka]

Re: Short Circuit on Phantom battery connectors (Drone side)

This are the two measures that I'm doing, first is continuity and the second ohms and I'm getting 1,6 ohm...








I'm measuring between positive and negative.

Guido.

 

[Woody]

Re: Short Circuit on Phantom battery connectors (Drone side)

Check the accessory power cable on the underside of the Phantom, the thin red and gray wire located by one of the legs underneath. DJI leaves this cable bare and unprotected. Mine shorted there when the two ends make contact and melted the wire.

 

[PhantomFanatic]

Re: Short Circuit on Phantom battery connectors (Drone side)

I'm afraid you have a direct short, not good. Is yours under warranty? If it is, I would contact whoever you purchased it from. If out of warranty, I would take a look inside. I doubt it will look nice. Have you had your open before?

The Red and Black wires, that connect to the battery terminals goes a short distance to the main P.C. Board. Be sure to unplug the ribbon cable to the GPS unit, with the grey foam cover, with copper shielding inside of it.

What model do you have?

 

[PhantomFanatic]

Re: Short Circuit on Phantom battery connectors (Drone side)

Check the accessory power cable on the underside of the Phantom, the thin red and gray wire located by one of the legs underneath. DJI leaves this cable bare and unprotected. Mine shorted there when the two ends make contact and melted the wire.

What model do you have?? Anyway, I have a P2, V2 non-vision and I don't see a red and grey wires on one of the legs.

 

[Woody]

Re: Short Circuit on Phantom battery connectors (Drone side)

I have a P1 and an FC40. That accessory cable comes on both models.

 

[PhantomFanatic]

Re: Short Circuit on Phantom battery connectors (Drone side)

That's why I don't see it! I added my model above.

 

[PhantomFanatic]

Re: Short Circuit on Phantom battery connectors (Drone side)

Guido, what model do you have? I can't make it out from the photo.

 

[Woody]

Re: Short Circuit on Phantom battery connectors (Drone side)

Here's a picture of the accessory cable.

 

[guidokaleka]

Re: Short Circuit on Phantom battery connectors (Drone side)

It's a Phantom 2 and it doesn't have these accesory cables.

The Phantom 2 is not under warranty anymore because my boss (the owner) opened it.

I will be traveling to US (Miami) next month so I will leave it at the service if I don't find the problem before.

Thanks you for all the support.
Guido, from Argentina.

 

[PhantomFanatic]

Re: Short Circuit on Phantom battery connectors (Drone side)

Although I've heard of one case where the warranty was voided by the shell being opened, I don't think that is the final word. Ask before assuming it is out of warranty. Did he add any equipment inside?

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Having said the above, I've run across conflicting information, supposedly from DJI. A reply from DJI, dated Jan, 2015, said: Below, is supposedly the text:

Thank you for contacting DJI North America.
Yes, opening the copter will void the warranty.
DJI Technical Support Team
DJI Customer Service North America

Another, individual post supposedly was from the manual which states that opening the shell voids the warranty. Naturally, I can't prove any of this. But, it has a hint of truth, to me.

 

[J.James]

Re: Short Circuit on Phantom battery connectors (Drone side)

For what its worth I just checked my P2Vs and my P2 all 3 of them I'm getting exactly 2.387 Ohms across the + and - battery blades.

But when I check for continuity with the buzzer on my meter. It just chirps for a split second and then it stops. Thats pretty weird. Considering it should be making a loop being there is no internal switch to cut off the power any were in the phantoms

and another thing that is weird is when checking the ohms it starts at about 1.8 and then clinbs up to 2.387 over a span of about 20 seconds before stopping at 2.387

 

[PhantomFanatic]

Re: Short Circuit on Phantom battery connectors (Drone side)

For what its worth I just checked my P2Vs and my P2 all 3 of them I'm getting exactly 2.387 Ohms across the + and - battery blades.

But when I check for continuity with the buzzer on my meter. It just chirps for a split second and then it stops. Thats pretty weird. Considering it should be making a loop being there is no internal switch to cut off the power any were in the phantoms

and another thing that is weird is when checking the ohms it starts at about 1.8 and then clinbs up to 2.387 over a span of about 20 seconds before stopping at 2.387

Try touching the ends of the meter probes together and see what you get. Do you have any resistors laying around? If so, you could compare your meter's reading to the the actual value. If all Phantoms work, yet show a short, I suspect you might have a meter problem. Most meters, have a replaceable fuse inside. Check it as a last resort.

 

[J.James]

Re: Short Circuit on Phantom battery connectors (Drone side)

My meter works and is reading right tho It might be off by a few 100ths and there is nothing wrong with any of my phantoms. But Its quite normal to be able to get some continuity threw a circuit that has no off switches or any thing to cut the path of the electric. If electric cant flow in a loop from one side of the battery to the other the devise would not work. and would mean there is a broken connection some place along the path. But on the other hand there should also be some resistance and not just a complete short.

 

[PhantomFanatic]

Re: Short Circuit on Phantom battery connectors (Drone side)

My meter works and is reading right tho It might be off by a few 100ths and there is nothing wrong with any of my phantoms. But Its quite normal to be able to get some continuity threw a circuit that has no off switches or any thing to cut the path of the electric. If electric cant flow in a loop from one side of the battery to the other the devise would not work. and would mean there is a broken connection some place along the path. But on the other hand there should also be some resistance and not just a complete short.

I think the difference we are seeing is the type of meter being used. Older meters, such as an analog Triplett, uses 30VDC when in Ohms. Whereas, many digital meters use between 3V to 9V. I've seen this before, with a meter with higher voltage, the Ohms reading, on a circuit, is low, sometimes near zero ohms, while with a digital meter, the same circuit can read infinity. Sometimes even the difference between 3V to 9V can cause this to happen.

So, I retract what I said, since we are not using the same meter.

 

[J.James]

Re: Short Circuit on Phantom battery connectors (Drone side)

Now thats interesting and some thing I never thought about is the different voltages in different meters.

 

[SteveMann]

and another thing that is weird is when checking the ohms it starts at about 1.8 and then clinbs up to 2.387 over a span of about 20 seconds before stopping at 2.387

This is exactly what I would expect when the ohmmeter is charging a capacitor in the circuit.
However, using an ohmmeter in this mode of troubleshooting is just not correct because there's just too many variables and conflicting results. What you need to see is the current draw as the battery is turned on.